Ministry files lawsuit against Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it a hate group

D. James Kennedy Ministries, based at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, has filed a federal lawsuit in Alabama against the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center for calling the ministry a hate group.

The lawsuit was filed Aug. 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama in Montgomery. The lawsuit alleges that the SPLC "illegally trafficked in false and misleading descriptions of the services offered by DJKM and committed defamation against DJKM arising from the publication and distribution of false information that libels the ministry's reputation and subjects the ministry to disgrace, ridicule, odium, and contempt in the estimation of the public," according to a statement by the ministry.

The ministry is named for the late TV Evangelist D. James Kennedy, who was the longtime pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and host of the nationally syndicated "Coral Ridge Hour" TV program. He died in 2007. Kennedy played a role in helping form the conservative Presbyterian Church in America denomination, which organized in Birmingham in 1973 at Briarwood Presbyterian Church.

"We embarked today on a journey to right a terrible wrong," said Dr. Frank Wright, president and CEO at D. James Kennedy Ministries, in a statement released after the filing of the lawsuit. "Those who knowingly label Christian ministries as 'hate' groups, solely for subscribing to the historic Christian faith, are either woefully uninformed or willfully deceitful. In the case of the Southern Poverty Law Center, our lawsuit alleges the latter."

Other defendants in the lawsuit include Amazon and Guidestar. The ministry alleges that it was excluded from the Amazon Smile program, which allows customers to donate to the charity of their choice when making a purchase. The ministry said the SPLC's classification of it as a hate group, because of its stance against homosexuality, was the basis for its exclusion.

"These false and illegal characterizations have a chilling effect on the free exercise of religion and on religious free speech for all people of faith," Wright said. "After having given the SPLC an opportunity to retract, we have undertaken this legal action, seeking a trial by a jury of our peers, to preserve our own rights under the law and to defend the religious free speech rights of all Americans."

Coral Ridge Presbyterian and Briarwood maintained a close association over the years as two of the largest churches in the Presbyterian Church in America denomination. Coral Ridge also was supportive of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, now a candidate for U.S. Senate, who spoke at Coral Ridge Presbyterian in 2003 during the controversy over a Ten Commandments monument Moore installed in the Alabama Judicial Building that was later removed.

Coral Ridge raised more than $575,000 for Moore's legal defense and his Foundation for Moral Law during the Ten Commandments controversies.

"We don't think he did anything wrong," Kennedy said in an interview with The Birmingham News at the time of Moore's speech. "He is one of the most courageous men I've ever met."After being introduced as "a champion of liberty for us all" and welcomed with a standing ovation, Moore praised Kennedy before his 2003 speech in the church."He's probably done more to expose the agenda of these people who want to take God from our country than anybody," Moore said of Kennedy.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued in 1995 to get Moore, then an Etowah County circuit judge, to remove his handmade wooden plaque of the Ten Commandments from his Gadsden courtroom.Moore kept his plaque, became a national celebrity and ran successfully for the state's highest judicial office in 2000, vowing to stand up for the Ten Commandments and the moral foundations of law.After taking office, Moore commissioned a 2.6-ton Ten Commandments monument for the state judicial building. Moore allowed Coral Ridge Ministries to tape the after-hours installation of the monument, which aired as part of Kennedy's national TV program.The ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Southern Poverty Law Center fought a successful legal battle to get Moore to remove the monument.Moore defied a federal judge's order to remove the monument. The eight other Supreme Court justices overruled him and had it moved from the rotunda.

"In the 'Profits of Hate: The Southern Poverty Law Center' DVD, we reveal the true motives of the liberal-progressive SPLC. Their deceptive 'hate map' attempts to demonize and silence Christians--and makes huge profits for them in the process. As the DVD shows, when disagreement with radical liberalism is labeled 'hate,' the consequences can be dire and even tragic."

Actor George Clooney and his wife, Amal, recently announced a $1 million grant to the Southern Poverty Law Center to combat hate groups through their foundation, the Clooney Foundation for Justice.

"We are proud to support the Southern Poverty Law Center in its efforts to prevent violent extremism in the United States," the Clooneys said in a statement. "What happened in Charlottesville, and what is happening in communities across our country, demands our collective engagement to stand up to hate."